Verb
lay the groundwork (third-person singular simple present lays the groundwork, present participle laying the groundwork, simple past and past participle laid the groundwork)
(idiomatic, figuratively) To create a foundation; to provide the basics or fundamentals.
The introductory mathematics courses will lay the groundwork for all your subsequent engineering studies.
The electronic media introduced this idea to the larger audience very, very quickly. We spent years and years and years meeting with activists all over Europe to lay the groundwork for a political response, as we did here. Jeremy Rifkin
As we continue to work to overturn Roe v. Wade, we must also continue to lay the groundwork for a society in which abortion is not the accepted answer to unwanted pregnancy. Pro-life people have already taken heroic steps, often at great personal sacrifice, to provide for unwed mothers. Ronald Reagan
If entemologists have things backward, their errors have spawned a host of others central to modern evolutionary science. ...E. O. Wilson is... the founder of a rich and fruitful discipline-sociobiology. And sociobiology has... helped lay the groundwork for the dogma of the "selfish gene." Howard Bloom
We've got to move beyond the idea that the public and private sectors are at odds. Government has to lay the groundwork for private equity to productively invest in things like education. It's a partnership, not a battle. Sebastian Pinera
The Conquest of Joshua could not have been a primitive assault, because a civilized land like Canaan with well-fortified cities could easily have repulsed an attack that was militarily naïve. ...Spies were sent to search out the land and lay the groundwork. Cyrus H. Gordon
And — a wildcard prediction here — it will lay the groundwork for holding that states fund the tuition of students who attend religiously affiliated schools. Source: Internet